Plans for detached screen house?

I'm considering a detached screen house as part of our landscaping projects for next year. This is in central MN; our lot is about 2.5 acres and 1/2 of that is wetland so we have lots of mosquitoes. Soil is clay and the lot slopes very gradually toward the wetland. Location will be about 25 feet from the back porch and there will be a paver patio nearby for BBQ, etc.

My first thought is a simply 24x16' building, gable roof with 16" overhangs, with 24x48" screens above a knee wall on all four sides. I'd place the door on the 16' end and use 4' for a covered porch. The structure would be on piers with the floor about 24" above grade, which would both move it above some of the bugs and keep it out of the snow for part of the winter. I'd probably use fiber cement for siding and some sort of panelized (steel or polycarbonate) for the roof.

Anyone have something like this? Seen plans somewhere? Have thoughts on design I should keep in mind?

thanks,

Kiwanda

Reply to
Kiwanda
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When I lived in Southern Louisiana, they were very common. They were used for cooking large quantities of foods that would smoke up or smell up the house, and for butchering, and processing wild game. One of the main reasons too was to get out of the skeeters.

If I was to make one of these, and I want to, my considerations would be this:

Keep it simple. Go to your local codes and understand where you can keep it to a simple out building, and not a heavily coded structure. A lot will depend on your zoning as to what you can do. And call it a "outbuilding" or "religious food storage area", or something innocuous. Once it passes final, you can go in and do what you want.

One of the biggies is, will it have a foundation? In some rural residence and agricultural zones, anything without a foundation is considered a "temporary" structure, and has very little codes.

Investigate the possibilities of having a GRAY WATER ONLY leach field. That is, you would only be putting sink water down the pipes, and no sewage. That should help keep the cost down, you'd just have to go inside to make a big deposit.

Make at least one mud room or foyer. This can be small, but you know the value of mudrooms in your part of the country. It also gives a layer of heat loss protection when you open the door.

Run adequate power out there. If you are considering those hot water on demand things, they take a lot of juice. Whatever you do, put a larger panel than you think you'll need.

Depending on what you're going to do, slope the floor to floor drains so if you do make a mess, you can hose it down.

Use available light, perhaps a couple of skylights. Use available sun orienting go utilize heat gain, or help keep it cool.

Right from the start, select major components, like a three compartment NSF kitchen sink, large cooktop, or room for a large cooker, reefer space, food storage space, etc. And build so as to keep the little vermin out, too.

Main thing, check codes, build in compliance with them, and when they're gone, finish it like you want. And watch your mouth during construction and don't let it slip that you'll be doing this and that later. The less they know, the easier and cheaper the permits will be.

And if you say "religious food storage area", they might want to stay as detached from the project as they can. Which would be a good thing.

And lastly, use netting that is easy to replace. None of the fancy stuff in expensive aluminum frames. That shade cloth from HD is cheap, and simple to change, held on by metal or wood furring strips.

HTH

Steve

visit my blog at

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Reply to
Steve B

Why not, that is the easiest to install and easiest replace screen in..

Reply to
gfretwell

Easiest doesn't mean the cheapest..and we're talking about a lot of square footage. I'm guessing that pre-framed screens for that size structure is going to put a strain on your budget.

BTW...consider using the "pet resistant" screen.

I know it's more expensive upfront, but it may well be worth the cost.

A few years ago I replaced the screen on my slider with it because I have a cat who lets us know she wants to come in by jumping up onto the screen, hanging for a second and then jumping down to the deck. The ensuing "thump" lets us know she's there. If we're too slow, she'll jump up again and many, many times I've peeled her off the screen, claws digging in and pulling on the screen.

This has been going on for well over 3 years and there is not one mark or tear on the screen. This stuff really works.

It comes in long rolls, so you could build your own frames as suggested by Steve B. For the amount you need, I'd contact the manufacturer and try to get wholesaler pricing - or at least the name of a wholesaler that can beat the home center prices.

One example...

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Reply to
DerbyDad03

OP seemed to be on a budget. Both work, and it just depends on how much you want to fool with it, and how much you want to spend. Screen is easy to nail on with furring strips, and the inset aluminum frames take a little more, NO, A LOT MORE, exacting work. If a wind storm or ice storm comes through and wrecks both of them, the difference between the two to make them right again are not minimal.

Steve

visit my blog at

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Reply to
Steve B

Easiest doesn't mean the cheapest..and we're talking about a lot of square footage. I'm guessing that pre-framed screens for that size structure is going to put a strain on your budget.

BTW...consider using the "pet resistant" screen.

I know it's more expensive upfront, but it may well be worth the cost.

A few years ago I replaced the screen on my slider with it because I have a cat who lets us know she wants to come in by jumping up onto the screen, hanging for a second and then jumping down to the deck. The ensuing "thump" lets us know she's there. If we're too slow, she'll jump up again and many, many times I've peeled her off the screen, claws digging in and pulling on the screen.

This has been going on for well over 3 years and there is not one mark or tear on the screen. This stuff really works.

It comes in long rolls, so you could build your own frames as suggested by Steve B. For the amount you need, I'd contact the manufacturer and try to get wholesaler pricing - or at least the name of a wholesaler that can beat the home center prices.

One example...

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I had two custom made 70% shade cloths made from some outfit on the net. I was well pleased with them, as they did a very good job sewing and grommetting them, and they WERE an unusual size that I could not buy just a standard size at the Borg. I was pleased with the price, they fit, and they lasted about four years before requiring repairs.

Then I bought a Singer walking foot sewing machine that would sew 1/4" of leather, and it would certainly sew this shadecloth. I matched the shadecloth of what I had custom made, and the shadecloth this outfit used to Home Depot, and it was IDENTICAL to it.

If I had the sewing machine previously, I could have made my own for far less.

I am taking my machine in for a tune up, having several shadecloth projects as well as Sunbrella awning canvas jobs in the pipeline. Let me tell you, being able to make steel frames for awnings, and being able to sew Sunbrella will cut costs to about 30% of what they want retail.

If a guy is a real DIY'er, and has the right equipment, there isn't much that is available commercially that they cannot crank out, and at a substantial savings. AND without sacrificing a lot in quality. Sometimes it is just worth the money to buy the tools for ONE JOB.

It depends on the time available. Sometimes it is easier and cheaper just to pay someone, and have it appear. And other times, it is nice to do it yourself, and take the extra money saved and buy tools, or other nice things for yerseff and SWMBO.

SWMBO's love it when you spend the money you "saved" on a job on them. Funny, how when you go out and spend a lot of money, and "save" on it how it ends up the same as our ancestral hunter/gatherer behavior of bringing back the goods in mass quantities. Then the ritualistic celebrations, and the celebratory mixed cocktail of gene pools ..........

All Hail The Great Hunter/Gatherer! ;-)

Steve

visit my blog at

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Reply to
Steve B

Kiwanda wrote the following:

Who is going to build this? You'll have a hard time finding the exact plans for what you have envisioned unless someone else had built the same exact screen house and shared the plans. If you know the general construction of a wood framed building, you may be able to draw your own plans, or hire an architect to draw the plans for you. Personally, I would go the architect route unless you know span loads for those large (internally unsupported?) floor and ceiling spans, and how to space out the piers to elevate the building off the ground. Basically, you are building a large shed or a detached garage with a different wall system. You'll find plenty of plans for basic sheds/detached garages on the web. You can just skip the parts you don't need Google - detached+garage+plans and click the Images link at the top of the Google page for some pics. HTH

Reply to
willshak

Another advantage of the pet resistant screening is that the fabric material is thicker and more visible, so people (guests) are less likely to walk into it. I've had to replace some door screening on the pool house a couple of times because of people walking into it before I changed to the pet kind.

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Reply to
willshak

re: "so people (guests) are less likely to walk into it."

Guests, maybe...but not necessarily the homeowner.

And yes, it does hold up very well when you walk into it.

DAMHIKT

Reply to
DerbyDad03

My screen cage is rated for 130 MPH and had a 40 foot mango tree on it after Charley. It took about 20 minutes to roll in the broken screens. There is a little bit of a trick in rolling screen but not that hard to learn.

Reply to
gfretwell

I won't have time to do it myself but I'll probably do some of the finish work (all the interior, possibly siding, likely electric) and build the screen panels. At this point I was hoping to find some sort of generic plans that I could use to start a conversation with a builder this winter.

Yep. In fact, one thought I've had is to just talk with a garage builder about making a two car garage with 24x48 openings all around. Thought I'd ask for plans first though in case there was some cache somewhere I hadn't been able to find on my own.

@Steve above, I'm really looking to keep this simple. No water. Probably a single 15 amp circuit for a fan and lights. It would only be used late April-early October at best, so no insulation, heating, etc.

thanks,

kiwanda

Reply to
Kiwanda

re: I'm really looking to keep this simple. No water.

I helped build a cabin in the Adirondacks for a buddy of mine.

We put in a counter with a sink whose drain simply went though the floor. The cabin was on piers.

We built a shelf above the sink strong enough to hold a 5 gallon water container and "piped" a hose down to a single handled faucet. Poof! Running water for washing hands and dishes.

(There was natural spring in a nearby hillside right off the main road near his cabin. Someone, years ago, had shoved a piece of PVC pipe into the hillside and laid a piece of steel grating over the stream below it. You could pull off the road and fill your water containers

24 - 7 with fresh, clean mountain water.)
Reply to
DerbyDad03

You should be looking at post and beam construction for a screen house to keep things open. Screen is available in 8' wide rolls. Then you just line the inside of the openings with 1x2 "patio" screen frame and roll the screen in. They will sell you the screen doors pre hung or you get a stick of the frame material and frame it yourself. Aluminum suppliers sell this in 20 and 24 foot sticks for about half of what you pay at the Lowes/HD places in 10' sticks that end up being a lot of waste. A regular miter/chop saw does a good job on the aluminum,

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Reply to
gfretwell

Go to your nearest park with open-sided picnic shelters, and look up at the roof trusses inside the roof, assuming it is wood-framed. Usually a lot more complicated than a garage roof, which depends greatly on the sidewalls to avoid twisting and racking. It isn't hard, but it is different. What you need to tell the garage guy is that you want a wood-framed carport structure, that may get screened in later. Can you live with triangle-section braces coming off the posts up into the roof? Properly done (set into kerfs and lagged off) they add a whole lot of sideways strength to keep the walls and corners from racking. In most residential use, they are merely nailed-on decorative trim, and pretty much useless.

Reply to
aemeijers

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